Attractiveness of municipal districts for internal migrants: the case of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

The main demographic problem facing the authorities of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is the imbalance between the external and internal migration flows. This imbalance resulted from the structural heterogeneity of spatial development. Thus, I analyzed the economic zones mentioned in official documents and the clusters obtained through Ward's method. Nevertheless, internal migration – currently the main form of migration – merits special attention. I focused on its share of arrivals in all arrivals and its share of departures in all departures. I also considered migration attractiveness of the municipal districts. It was assessed using migration succession and effectiveness ratios. The following results were obtained: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the share of internal departures in all departures was significantly lower than the share of internal arrivals in all arrivals, indicating the desire among many to emigrate. It was the level of economic development and economic specialization rather than geographical location that explained the persistent differences between municipal districts. The most attractive destination for internal migrants was Yakutsk. Additionally, I found that the four economically developed districts with a focus on external migration had quite high migration attractiveness, while the rest of the districts were not attractive for internal migrants.